Move-In for New Students!!!!!!

by Betsy Chapman

In this Issue:

  • Final message for P’28s
  • Give your student the gift of clean laundry with Wake Wash

Today is move-in day for our ’28s and transfer students! Hooray! I will be all over the place for move-in and Orientation through Weds. 8/21 and Thurs. 8/22. If you see me, please come up and say hello!

Final message for P’28s

So I was *supposed* to send the final Weekly Message to P’28s yesterday, and I got so caught up in pre move-in stuff that I never got to it. So I am going to post the main items below:

Top 5 Tips for New Families for the first month of school

  • So dropping off at move-in is one thing. Adjusting to the first month of school is another. Here are some things to think about for the first month or so of school:
    • The transition to college/feeling at home takes at least a full semester, if not a full year – so do not panic if your Deac is 3 days/weeks/months in and it doesn’t feel perfect yet. Sense of belonging takes time and effort on students’ part – getting involved in clubs and organizations, meeting lots of people, etc. Students will get out of it what they put in it – so urge them to get involved and put themselves out there.
    • Bumps in the road are normal and to be expected. College is harder than high school, so your student might have to work/study differently. BUT we have tons of resources: office hours, free tutoring, advisers, faculty and staff who care – students just have to let us know they need help! There can also be bumps in the road re: friend groups, struggles to find your place, etc. All of these uncomfortable moments are a normal part of the college transition.
    • Parents and families will serve your student best if you maintain a consultant role (where you listen and give emotional support, but not answers). While they are at college, in most cases, your student should be the one to do the work, make the call, ask the question, research the website, give the feedback, take ownership, etc. Why do we say this? Your problem solving skills are already well-developed. This is their time to build their skills. And remember that your student calling you to vent frustrations is NOT an automatic call to action for the family: 99% of the time, they are venting to their safe people – you – and as soon as they hang up, they feel better for having vented.
    • Remind your students to treat their friends-at-other-colleges’ social media accounts with a high degree of skepticism. People tend to post pictures of themselves when they are having the most fun, they look great, are surrounded with 10 friends, everything is amazing, etc. – not when they feel lonely, are trying to find someone to eat lunch with, or wondering what they will do when it’s Friday night and they don’t have plans yet. Your student may think their best high school friend at [Insert College Name] is having a waaaay better time than they are based on their Instagram, but remember Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok etc. are heavily-curated. The bumps in the college transition hit every student at every college. The grass isn’t greener at [Other School].
    • Encourage your Deac to take care of themself. In order to bring their best self to their schoolwork, their relationships, etc., they need adequate sleep, some healthy food, and moderate exercise. Self-care is critical, and make sure you remind your Deac to invest in their wellbeing.
    • Urge your students to be very cautious at the start of the academic year about underage drinking, as we mentioned in our August 6 message on social life.

This is a transition year, but it can still be a great year for new students. It just won’t all fall into place on day 1 (or 30 or 60).

How we can best partner with families

At the start of each semester, we like to share some basic foundational information with families about how we can best work together for our shared goal of your student’s success. Please visit our How We Communicate page for important information on:

  • How parents and families can opt in to receive Campus Security Alerts
  • When we communicate with families: what are the circumstances, etc.
  • How we partner with families and what our philosophy is on student development and growth
  • The Stop, Drop, and Roll method that we encourage families to use when their student has a problem, a decision to make, a task to complete, or a frustration

A-Z of WFU Glossary of Terms

  • We have compiled an A-Z of WFU glossary of terms that we encourage all families to review. There are many terms that have changed in higher ed over the last 30 years, schools tend to have a lot of acronyms, and we may refer to something using a different term than you may be used to. 

We hope to see you often during your student’s time at Wake

Families, once you drop your students off, we still want you to be involved with Wake Forest:

  • You will receive invitations to Wake Forest events that are happening in your local area. All WAKECommunity events are open to alumni, families, and friends.
  • There are also lots of opportunities to visit on campus, and we hope you will do so. Your students may be involved in arts productions, research presentations, or athletic competitions. Wake Forest’s signature speaker series, Face to Face, brings world-renowned speakers to campus several times a year. We hope you will join us whenever you can.

Closing thoughts/what’s next

The start of the school year means no more Weekly Messages emailed to you. From here on out, we will keep you updated on Wake Forest activities in the following ways:

  • Important note: the New Students website (newstudents.wfu.edu) will not be updated after August 21st. At that point, all parent and family information can be found on parents.wfu.edu. Please discontinue using newstudents.wfu.edu after August 21st.
  • If you have not already done so, you can subscribe to the Daily Deac blog and get an email each weekday around 5 p.m. with news, information, advice, and some fun stuff too.
  • Each Monday of the fall semester, the Daily Deac will include a link to a Weekly Message for First Year Families, which will discuss the college transition and things your Deac might be experiencing that week. If you don’t subscribe to the Daily Deac, you might wish to bookmark our First Year page if you wish to read those messages.
  • Around the 15th-20th of each month, we will email a Wake Parents & Families e-newsletter to all families. Those are archived here.
  • Please bookmark the Who to Contact for… page so you have it as a reference, but whenever possible, let your student be the one to contact an office, ask a question, give feedback, or research how to accomplish something on campus. Our students need to develop relationships with campus offices, and they will be building real-world problem-solving skills when they do the work themselves.
  • You will also want to bookmark our After Hours Help page. This will help you know who to contact in the event of an urgent concern that cannot wait until the next business day.

Move-in and the start of school inspires a lot of emotions – excitement, anxiety, anticipation, joy, hesitancy – for students and families alike. But your Deacs are ready for this next step, and you are too 🙂

Wishing a wonderful first year at Wake Forest for all our Deacs!

Give your student the gift of clean laundry with Wake Wash

For the P’28s in the Daily Deacdom, we mentioned Wake Wash in one of your weekly messages each Tuesday as an optional add-on to your Deac’s experience. For the P’25s-27s, we wanted to share the following just in case you are not aware:

“We are Wake Wash, Wake Forest’s exclusively licensed alumni-owned and student-operated laundry wash/dry/fold service. Tired of doing laundry, tired of not finding machines in the dorm without laundry already in them, tired of wasting hours of your time every week in the basement of your residence hall –Wake Wash can help! We provide laundry bags for students; they leave their dirty clothes outside their dorm room on Tuesdays which we then pick up and return on Wednesdays – washed, dried, and folded! In addition, we offer a full pick-up and drop-off dry cleaning service.

Please visit Wake Wash for sign-up and more information, or contact us directly at info@wakewashwfu.com  with any questions. Go Deacs!”

As I always say, the choice to use services like this – or not – is up to you. We simply want to make you aware.

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